Birthday Present
by standingintheearthlight
Summary: Both Spencer and Sam find out a secret about each other on Sam's birthday.


_A/N: Spam is my favorite ship of the moment! I'll definitely be writing more spam in the future, but separate to this story. And of course, I would be forever grateful for a comment. :)_

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The day Sam turned 16, she caught the 12 o'clock bus to Carly's apartment to get ready for her party. She said she didn't need one after last year's big surprise, but Carly was persistent. Sam had changed quite a bit in the past few years. She'd begun to trade in her capris for skirts and mascara had found a home on her bathroom counter. She had come a long way, so this day was a particularly meaningful celebration. After she unlocked Carly's apartment door with her key, not her lock pick, she entered, to find Spencer in a fancy black shirt and dark wash jeans, on a ladder, hanging up black lights. His arms were raised above his head, and Sam's eyes fixated on the gap between the bottom of Spencer's shirt and his jeans. She tried to shake the thought out of her head.

"Well you look ready to party," she called out. Spencer turned his head.

"Oh, I'm always ready to party," was his smug reply.

"At least you remembered. Where's the girl who's throwing me this thing?"

"Calm down," Spencer said, even though he liked the way Sam looked when she annoyed. "Carly's out getting your present."

"Well she was supposed to help me get ready."

The comment pulled Spencer out of his flustered state, as he remembered why Sam was here so early. His face lit with understanding, and Spencer paused as he searched for the words that would hopefully get the response he wanted out of her. "She just left, actually. Probably won't be back for a while. Maybe not even in time to help you."

Sam's brain clicked. This was exactly the response she was hoping to get. "Well, I definitely want to be ready in time, so..." Sam waited for about two seconds, gauging Spencer's reaction. "...maybe you could help me."

Spencer's grin turned into a smirk. "Absolutely."

"Alright," Sam stated, helping Spencer empty the contents from her sack of clothes onto his bed. "I've narrowed it down to these two. I couldn't pick because the only way I can really tell if I like something is by tasting it, which doesn't really apply here."

Spencer sighed. We're so alike, he thought. And in the middle of watching Sam's lips move, he realized it was because she was still talking.

"So which one do you think I should wear?" The first was a black and white sundress, about mid-thigh length. It had a straight-across neckline with a flowery pattern. Looks pretty nice, Spencer was thinking, until he saw the second one. It was a flouncy red mini dress that looked like the ruffles would come to about the top of Sam's thighs. It's V-neck was deeper than anything he had ever seen her wear before, and at the shoulders were two thin straps, like spaghetti.

"The second one," Spencer choked out as he swallowed. "It's classy."

"You're right," Sam agreed. "Okay, get out while I put it on." She was overwhelmed with satisfaction when she saw what she thought was disappointment on his face. "It won't take long." As proof of her honesty, about a half a minute later she poked her head out of Spencer's bathroom door and watched his eyes light up.

"I need some help with the zipper." Sam walked towards him as she stared at the ground. She turned around and felt Spencer's hands on her lower back. He placed one hand around the zipper and the other on her bare shoulder. She thought she felt his hand shake as he tugged until the zipper was close to the top, then Spencer gathered her hair and swept it to one side to finish, his fingers brushing along her neck.

Sam tugged on her dress and turned back around.

"You look..." Spencer's voice trailed off. The doorbell rang.

Sam smiled. "That's probably Carly. With the first batch of partygoers."

"Then let's get out there!" Spencer took Sam's hand and lead her to the living room, before he realized that's probably not something a best friend's brother would do. He let go to open the door as Sam went to sit on the edge of the couch.

Carly entered with Freddie, Gibby, Wendy, and Natasha Berkowitz, yelling, "Why are you sitting? Turn on the music and get up and dance!"

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It was the middle of the night, and all the lights had been turned out. Everyone was going crazy dancing by just the glow of the black lights. The Shay apartment was packed. Spencer, who had been trying not to think about the gift certificate Carly had given Sam to Build-A-Bra, found Sam dancing by herself near the corner and couldn't resist.

"What are you doing alone? Everyone is supposed to be wanting to dance with you."

"I don't think they can see me," Sam said with a shrug. "My dress doesn't show up well in your black lights."

"Well I can definitely see you." Sam raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Samantha. Let's dance." Spencer took her by the hand and led her, just like before, but this time into the dancing mob. They started by half-way bouncing to the music, but eventually, the beat caught up with them.

Someone accidentally bumped Sam into Spencer, causing her hand to land on his chest, but she didn't move it. She slowly dragged it down his body, ending with her fingers touching his belt. She continued to to rapidly sway her arms and hips to the music as Spencer put one hand on her shoulder and one on her waist. It wasn't long until he was running his hands all over her neck, shoulders, and waistline as they danced, and her hands were under his shirt, feeling the skin of his stomach, back, and chest. They pressed their bodies into each other and let go of everything they had felt was wrong- they let the music and the moment take over.

They went on like this for an intense four more songs until they both spotted Carly looking for them. They pulled away just before she began walking in their direction.

"Hey," she said, "everyone's about to leave. It's getting late, and Freddie's mom will flip if she has to hear this music blasting through her walls much longer."

"Cool, I'll tell everyone bye," Sam replied.

"I'll turn the lights back on and start cleaning up," Spencer volunteered.

Twenty minutes later and all that was left was Carly, Spencer, and Sam. Carly yawned, and said, "That was so much fun, but I'm so tired. I know you're spending the night, Sam, but do you mind if I just go to sleep?"

"Sure. I'll be doing that soon, too."

Spencer, who had been picking up plastic cups in the corner, wasn't sure what to do with this new information. No one had told him Sam was spending the night. He didn't know what to say. Were he and Sam pretending like this whole thing never happened? Over ten minutes of silent cleaning and sweeping went by before he dared himself to look up and see what Sam was doing.

She was already at the computer, looking through Carly's photos of the party. Spencer took a deep breath and walked up behind her. With the reassurance that Carly was asleep, he leaned into her, his body up against Sam's back. When she didn't protest, he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Happy Birthday," he whispered, and kissed Sam on the cheek. Her only reaction was to turn around to face him and look him in the eyes. Then she slowly reached up to press her lips against his and make the moment last as long as she could.

After five seconds, she tried to pull back to respond with, "That's a hell of a birthday present," but Spencer already had her pressed against the counter with his fingers in her hair, and one hand undoing what he had zipped up earlier that day.


End file.
